Headphones
Headphones cannot be overlooked in the home studio design.
They will allow you to hear your music clearly with the added benefit of not irritating everyone around you.
Chances are you're not performing in the middle of an isolated empty house, but rather in a room with a wall you probably share with at least 1 of your wonderful neighbors or roommates.
Grab a pair of studio headphones and all your housemates will be much more supportive of your new hobby.
In addition to keeping the peace, these can help during the Tracking process by eliminating the chance for Feedback, a particularly nasty potential side effect of using a mic and studio monitor combination while recording.
For this reason you'll want to don a pair of these when setting up a Monitoring Mix.
So even if you are lucky enough to have a totally isolated dedicated space to jam out in, you can still benefit from the use of a good set of cans.
Even with a high quality pair of Studio Monitors you'll want to grab some of these so that you can get a feel for the "idealized" sound of your music.
The acoustics of your home studio are likely to be less than ideal so this is your chance to hear your stuff at it's best.
In my case, the acoustics are thrown off by the many Transformer robots & Van Halen posters on display...
Chances are the acoustics of your room may be off for a different reason, but the beauty is that these are a direct line into your brain and don't depend on the shape and material properties of your room.
As far as selecting a pair, my recommendation is to spend ~$100.
For some quick recommendations check out our Headphone Buying Guide.
We have created it for your safety and the safety of all who wish to get something useful as opposed to the shiniest (most expensive) ones in the store.
In general the pair you choose should either sit on top of or around your ears. A pair that goes inside your ears will get on your nerves quickly.
Like cables - spending more for "better" components will not really make a significant difference in sound, but may give you much higher quality in terms of durability and comfort.
Try on a few different pairs... if they feel good and you like the way they look then pull the trigger.
Everyone's head is shaped slightly differently so just make sure they don't dig in or sit awkwardly on your noggin.
In the end just know that you'll be using them a lot so make sure you get something you're happy with.
